MANILA — The Sandiganbayan First Division on Monday convicted two former public officials over graft and malversation charges.

Former Leyte 3rd District Rep. Eduardo Veloso and defunct Technology and Resource Center (TRC) legislative liaison officer Rosalinda Lacsamana were found guilty by the Sandiganbayan 1st Division on Monday for 2 counts of graft and 2 counts of malversation.

Veloso and Lacsamana were sentenced to be imprisoned for 6 to 10 years for each of the graft cases, with another jail sentence of 12 to 18 years for each of the malversation cases.

The raps stemmed from the misuse of Veloso’s P24.2 million Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2007.

In a 2017 indictment of the Ombudsman, Veloso specifically requested the TRC as the implementing agency with Aaron Foundation as a partner non-government organization for programs which turned out to be ghost projects.

The Ombudsman noted that Aaron Foundation, according to a Commission on Audit observation, had no financial capability to undertake the projects with a capital stock contribution of only P68,000.

Aside from imprisonment, the court also ordered Veloso and Lacsamana to return to the government, jointly or separately, the total amount of the misused PDAF worth P24.2 million.

During the promulgation, First Division Chairperson Efren Dela Cruz also ordered that the bonds for the provisional liberty of Veloso and Lacsamana be doubled, pending finality of the decision.

While Lacsamana was found guilty, her fellow TRC executives Dennis Cunanan, Francisco Figura and Marivic Jover were acquitted for the failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.